The capture of Nanchang did not cause any big surprises within the Chu Empire. After all, this was something that had been expected.

Even though Nanchang is governed by Jiangxi Province, it cannot hide the fact that its city defenses are sparse and its troops are sparsely stationed.

In order to build the Jiujiang defense line and keep the Chu army out of Jiujiang, senior governors on the eastern front of the Ming Dynasty such as Wang Jiazhen and Shi Kefa basically raided the Anlu governor, the Jiujiang governor, and some of the Yingtian governors and Nannan governors.

Most of the troops in the surrounding areas such as the governor of Jiangxi.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to gather nearly 50,000 troops on the Jiujiang defense line.

However, this means that Nanchang, Fuzhou, Ruizhou, Linjiang and other cities in the rear are unlikely to have many troops garrisoned.

Under such circumstances, when the Chu army was on the front line of Jiujiang, they annihilated more than 30,000 Ming troops by conquering Jiujiang Prefecture and Zhi Dehua. After two battles, the De'an suburb battle and the De'an siege, they annihilated about seven or eight Ming troops.

Thousands of people.

This also means that most of the troops deployed by the Ming Dynasty on the Jiujiang defense line have been wiped out, leaving only less than 10,000 troops stationed in Hukou

It also means that the huge central and northern Jiangxi region has completely opened its door to the Chu army.

After all, even a provincial city like Nanchang in the rear only has two or three thousand troops garrisoned, plus about two thousand troops who fled south from De'an. All the old, weak, sick and disabled, plus the defeated troops, only number five thousand.

Number.

As for the defenders of other cities, there are even fewer, and as for the New Standard Army and others, there are none.

Even if the Chu army only sent a new army, the under-strength 7th Division went south with the cooperation of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. It did not even have an independent mortar regiment specially used for siege. It would not be possible to go south to attack De'an and Nanchang.

It won’t be a big problem.

Actual combat also proves this point.

After the Seventh Division captured De'an with an almost unstoppable momentum, it quickly captured Nanchang City with the cooperation of the rebel Ming army in Nanchang City.

The so-called Battle of Nanchang seemed to be preceded by several days of blockade and preparations, but the actual fighting only lasted about one morning.

The 7th Division of the Chu Army that entered the city took full control of Nanchang City in just one morning and ensured the safety of many official warehouses and private grain store warehouses in the city without causing fires.

After capturing Nanchang City, the main force of the 7th Division did not stay in Nanchang City for long. Instead, it handed over the local defense to the 22nd Guards Brigade of the 11th Guards Division and continued to fight with the 1st Guards Division.

The cavalry brigade cooperates with the march south.

The follow-up tasks of the 7th Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade are still very heavy. They must continue to sweep through many prefectures and counties in northern and central Jiangxi.

Although these prefectures and counties do not have the main force of the Ming army, they more or less have some troops stationed there, and there are still quite a few cities garrisoned by one or two thousand people.

To deal with these cities with few garrison troops, the 7th Division, the main force of the Chu army going south, was simply divided. With two infantry brigades as the core, it was matched with cavalry, artillery and baggage and other troops, forming two troops with five troops each.

The mixed brigade combat detachment of more than a thousand people split up and headed south.

The first group, the 13th Brigade, will go straight to Fengcheng along the Gan River. Later, the brigade will continue south along the Gan River to attack Linjiang Prefecture, Ji'an Prefecture and other areas, and finally fight all the way to Ganzhou Prefecture.

One unit, the 14th Brigade, moved to the southeast, first to attack Jinxian, and then to attack Fuzhou Prefecture and Jianchang Prefecture. If nothing unexpected happens in the follow-up, the unit will turn to the northeast to attack the sandy area and attack Guangxin

Prefecture, Raozhou Prefecture and other places, and finally deployed troops at Hukou, cooperating with the First Division and other troops to launch a cross-river operation.

Of course, the premise is that the First Division and other troops have not been able to launch the cross-river operation.

After all, the 14th Brigade wants to fight all the way south and north, and finally reach Hukou. Even if it has the cooperation of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, it will be difficult, and the most important thing is that it will take a lot of time.<

/p>

If you want to wait until the 14th Brigade completes many tasks and finally sends troops to Hukou, it will probably take a month or two.

The First Division and other troops cannot wait so long.

The time for the Chu army to advance eastward is still relatively tight. They must at least capture Anqi before winter arrives, and it is best to capture Jinling City directly.

This means that it is impossible for the Chu army to waste a month or two at Hukou.,

As for whether it is possible to allow the 7th Division's southward troops to bypass Poyang Lake and go directly to the mouth of the lake instead of sweeping through the central and northern areas of Jiangxi.

From a military perspective, this decision is acceptable.

But economically it is not worth the gain.

Don’t forget that the direct reason for the Chu army’s eastward advance is to unify China at a larger scale, but at a smaller scale, the goal of the Chu army’s eastward advance is very simple and pure.

That is to invade northern Jiangxi and Jiangnan to seize local money and food to avoid financial bankruptcy!

Therefore, after conquering Jiujiang and advancing into northern Gansu, the Chu army's first goal was not to annihilate how many Ming armies or capture many cities, but to take advantage of the Ming army to react before the powerful, gentry and big families ran away with their money and food.

In front of the road, it swept across the northern and southern areas of Jiangxi with lightning speed, especially those areas along the Ganjiang River system with developed water transportation and many fertile fields.

And this is also the most important strategic task of the 7th Division.

To put it bluntly, the money and food needed for the subsequent Chu army's eastward march are all waiting for the Seventh Division to capture the city and capture the land.

Therefore, it is impossible for the 7th Division to let go of so much money and food without seizing it. Instead, it carried out a purely military mission and went directly to Hukou.

War is the continuation of politics, and politics is the continuation of economy.

After all, war is essentially a struggle for interests.

As for wars purely due to conflicts of will, they are very rare. Most wars are due to conflicts of interests.

What is benefit?

Money and food!

Behind money and food, it represents national strength, whether the people can have enough to eat, and whether capitalists can make money. It represents too many things.

The Chu army's eastward advance was directly driven by profit, money and food.

After the Seventh Division moved south, it launched a sweeping sweep, and a garrison division in the rear, the 11th Garrison Division, after completing its reorganization, moved south one after another and cooperated with the Seventh Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade in sweeping.

The basic model is that the elite cavalry units of the 1st Cavalry Brigade are the first to attack, blockade, and block the enemy's escape route, and then the main infantry and artillery of the 7th Division follow up to attack the city.

After the defeat, the troops of the 11th Division's garrison division followed up and were responsible for subsequent clearing operations to suppress the garrison.

At the same time, the garrison also needs to be responsible for maintaining the security of the logistics line of the troops moving south.

Therefore, the troops fighting south were not only the 7th Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade, but also the 11th Garrison Division.

And as the 11th Garrison Division moved south, it gradually expanded in size as it continued to accept surrendered troops.

After the Battle of De'an, the 11th Garrison Division, which had only about 8,000 men at the time, accepted the selected surrender of about 3,000 men.

After the Battle of Nanchang, the 11th Garrison Division accepted another 2,000 selected troops.

At this time, the size of the 11th Garrison Division had expanded to about 12,000 men.

But this was not done yet. Soon, as the 7th Division continued to conduct combat operations in various prefectures in Jiangxi, a large number of prisoners were reorganized and qualified soldiers were selected.

Soon, the size of the 11th Garrison Division had expanded to more than 15,000 men. In order to arrange for so many troops to drop, a temporary supplementary brigade had to be established.

Naturally, a garrison division with so many troops cannot do it.

The Chu army's garrison division consisted of one division and two brigades, plus a field artillery battalion, baggage regiment, engineer battalion, and cavalry battalion.

Having three brigades is not normal, so the Military Affairs Council soon issued an order. The 11th Garrison Division's supplementary brigade was independent and expanded into the 12th Garrison Brigade. Subsequent troops from various tribes in Jiangxi will be replenished one after another.

Enter the division.

In this way, the combat strength of the Chu Empire Army in the south and south of Jiangxi reached the number of one main division, two garrison divisions and one cavalry brigade.

Due to the large number of troops heading south, the Chu army has long faced mixed operations between the main force and the garrison. However, the main force is frequently mobilized, while the garrison is often stationed in a certain place for a long time.

Luo Zhixue began to make certain changes to the command system of the garrison.

This led to the emergence of the Jiangxi Garrison Command.

The Jiangxi Garrison Command is responsible for commanding the garrison forces in Jiangxi, and is responsible for recruitment, military and civilian work, and many other civilian tasks.

It is worth noting that the Jiangxi garrison headquarters only has three garrison divisions: the 7th garrison division, the 11th garrison division and the 12th garrison division.

Other main forces also fighting in Jiangxi are not under the command of this garrison headquarters.

However, in order to allow the garrison to better cooperate with the main force in operations, the commander of the Jiangxi garrison headquarters is concurrently appointed by Major General Huang Xiangbin, commander of the 7th Division.

In addition, garrison headquarters have been established not only in Jiangxi but also in several other places.

For the time being, there is the Henan Garrison Headquarters, which is actually the former North Route Army Headquarters, and is dominated by the First Garrison Division fighting in Nanyang Prefecture.

Shaanxi Garrison Headquarters, this is the former West Route Army Headquarters, is dominated by the Second Garrison Division fighting in the Guanzhong Prefecture area

The Sichuan Garrison Command is a newly established force, based on the Fourth Garrison Division of the garrison that previously fought in eastern Sichuan.

The Chubei Garrison Headquarters was also established to administer the Fifth Garrison Division and others.

The Chunan Garrison Headquarters was established, with jurisdiction over the Sixth Garrison Division, the Eighth Garrison Division, and the Ninth Garrison Division.

Due to its special status, the Han Tianfu, that is, the Gyeonggi Province, did not have a garrison headquarters. The Gyeonggi Garrison Command continued to be responsible for recruiting soldiers, military and civilians and other civilian duties, and the Gyeonggi Garrison Command nominally also had jurisdiction over the Guards.
p>

In this way, the Great Chu Empire has established garrison headquarters in provinces under full or partial control, that is, in provinces where governors have been established, and it has been clarified that the garrison headquarters has many tasks such as recruiting troops and military and civilians.

This constitutes a relatively complete local army command system.

What is worth noting is that the main forces in the Chu Empire Army are still not under the jurisdiction of the garrison headquarters.

Regardless of whether they are the temporary mixed regiments, the main divisions, or even some other independent main forces, or the Guards, they are not under the command of the garrison headquarters, but are directly under the jurisdiction of the Military Academy.

Through the establishment of the garrison headquarters, Luo Zhixue once again clarified the difference between the main division and the garrison division.
To be continued...